COLLINS'S MAIN ENGLISH PUBLISHERS

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[ Sampson Low ] [ Smith, Elder ]  [ Chatto & Windus ]

Single titles were published by Longmans, Memoirs of the Life of William Collins, Esq. R. A. (1848); Hurst & Blackett, The Queen of Hearts (1859); Tinsley, The Moonstone (1868); Ellis & Co., Man and Wife (1870); and Arrowsmith, The Guilty River (1886).

Multiple titles were published by Bentley, Sampson Low, Smith, Elder and Chatto & Windus.  The last three issued uniform editions but there has been no complete collected edition.  The nearest have been the 29 titles from Chatto & Windus and the 30 titles from Collier in the US.

 

Richard Bentley & Son

Richard Bentley published nine first editions:

Antonina (1850), Rambles Beyond Railways (1851), Mr Wray's Cash Box (1852), Basil (1852), Hide and Seek (1854), Poor Miss Finch (1872), Miss or Mrs? and Other Stories (1873), The New Magdalen (1873), and A Rogue's Life (1879).

Basil appeared in Bentley's Railroad Library (Bentley's Shilling Series) during 1854 before the title was bought by James Blackwood in 1856.  Bentley's final Collins publication came in 1879 with A Rogue's Life in its half-crown Empire Library.

Blackwood's London Library Bentley's Empire Library

 

Sampson Low

Sampson Low published three first editions: The Woman in White (1860), No Name (1862) and My Miscellanies (1863).  During 1861-62 they issued a 'cheap and uniform edition' of six titles with vignette frontispieces by John Gilbert: Antonina; Basil; Hide and Seek; The Dead Secret; The Queen of Hearts; The Woman in White.  They added a one volume edition of No Name in 1864 for 'Low's Favourite Library of Popular Books'.  With the exception of Basil these are the first one-volume editions.

Woman in White with Gilbert's illustrated title. Antonina with Low's later green binding.

 

Smith, Elder

Smith, Elder published two first editions: After Dark (1856) and Armadale (1866).  In 1865, they added seven titles for which they had taken over the publishing rights from Sampson Low.  Nine titles were then issued as ‘Cheap editions of Mr. Wilkie Collins’s Novels in Fancy Boards at 2s. 6d. each.’  Antonina, Basil, Hide and Seek, The Dead Secret, The Queen of Hearts, The Woman in White, No Name, After Dark and Armadale.  These were similar in style to yellowbacks.  Smith, Elder continued to issue the nine titles in a variety of uniform editions, adding The Moonstone in 1872.

1.  Pictorial Boards at 2s from 1871.

2.   Limp green cloth at 2s 6d, between 1870 and 1889.

3.   Bright red pebble-grain cloth, between 1871 and 1874.

 

Basil - 1871 Smith, Elder edition in green cloth After Dark - 1876 Smith, Elder edition in red and black cloth The Dead Secret - 1871 Smith, Elder yellowback
1865 Fancy Boards 1871 New Edition in limp cloth 1876 New Edition 1871 Yellowback

 

Chatto & Windus

Chatto published twelve first English editions.  In 1875, they acquired the copyright to most of the earlier titles (excluding Armadale, After Dark and No Name which remained with Smith Elder until 1890, and Bentley's A Rogue's Life); they published the majority of Collins's new works till 1889.  Chatto issued several cheap editions from 1875 in various formats, including the New Illustrated Library edition, Piccadilly Novels, Library Edition and Popular Editions.  By 1890, they published twenty-nine titles which continued to be issued well into the twentieth century:

Antonina, Basil, Hide and Seek, After Dark, The Dead Secret, The Queen of Hearts, The Woman in White, No Name, My Miscellanies, Armadale, The Moonstone, Man and Wife, Poor Miss Finch, The New Magdalen, Miss or Mrs?: and Other Stories in Outline, The Frozen Deep: and Other Stories, The Law and The Lady, The Two Destinies, A Rogue's Life, The Fallen Leaves, The Haunted Hotel, Jezebel's Daughter, The Black Robe, Heart and Science,"I Say No", The Guilty River, The Evil Genius, Little Novels, The Legacy of Cain, Blind Love.

The Frozen Deep - Chatto & Windus Piccadilly Novels

Heart and Science - Chatto & Windus edition in green cloth.

The Black Robe - Chatto & Windus yellowback.

Piccadilly Novels

Small format with limp boards

Yellowback

Antonina - Chatto & Windus 6d paperback.

Jezebel's Daughter - Chatto & Windus Library Edition.

The Dead Secret - Chatto & Windus edition in paper wrappers.

Popular Edition in pictorial wrappers

Library Edition

Popular Edition in tan paper wrappers

 

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